Gamasutra reports that Activision has awarded performance bonuses intended for former Infinity Ward executives Jason West and Vince Zampella to the employees who have remained with Infinity Ward "who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets." They quote community rep and former game journalist Dan Amrich in a Discussion about Activision Facebook Page referring to "Vince and Jason's surreptitious attempts to photocopy and scan sensitive documents." Not that they are looking to stem the exodus of IW employees with cash, but Dan adds: "more people will probably go too, looking for new situations. Maybe they will join Respawn, maybe not. I'm confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus -- and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay."

Anonymous Rex wrote on Apr 23, 2010, 16:21:It's easy to say "Well don't sign it." And it sounds easy right up until you're actually in that position, and you discover that the alternative is not working.

Far as I can see I'm the only one mentioning signing things, specifically "well they agreed to it".

But... They did. My comment didn't pass judgement. But you know... The reason we get screwed over by employers is because nobody challenges it. It isn't even screwing their staff over any more, it's borderline standard practice. Want to know why execs and bankers get paid a squillion dollars? Not only do they read their contracts, they negotiate - most importantly, they all do.

I like to moan about politicians. But, I'll admit at least half the problem is people not reading real newspapers, paying attention and using their vote with care. Again I don't pass judgement - I don't and can't blame anyone for considering it a waste of time. But as a group, we have to take our share of the blame for the state of politics. It's the same thing. I don't blame anyone for needing to make the rent, no individual's apathy is making a difference. But as a group, we take it and we take it and we take it and we hope someone else is going to save us - we don't do ourselves any favours.

Oh and yeah, there are the occasional cool employers who treat staff fairly in the belief that staff will respect and respond to that and so in the end they'll make a return on that. And they're right 90% of the time, but there's that 10% who abuse it and make it so that it's not working for the employer and in the end we get screwed over again. The best part is we're probably covering for those 10% guys.

So yeah, they agreed to it. Maybe they had little choice, maybe it's not their fault - at least no more than anyone else's. Maybe it's your fault. Maybe it's our fault. Activision? They're assholes but who expects different?

PS no this isn't support for unions who as far as I can tell is just another bunch of bosses abusing you for their own ends.